


The Return of the Debutante

by signalbeam



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Live Action TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 09:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2807153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/signalbeam/pseuds/signalbeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“Listen, Minako. It’s good that you’ve come back. Has Usagi told you yet?”</em>
</p><p>  <em>“Told me?”</em></p><p>  <em>“She’s pregnant.” Oh. Yes. Minako had heard that. So many e-mails. Rei pressed on. “The baby is possessed. It spoke to me.”</em></p><p>A few months after Usagi and Mamoru's wedding, Minako comes back from the tour. Rei has... news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Return of the Debutante

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Revieloutionne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revieloutionne/gifts).



Since she had some downtime after her Europe tour, she decided to get to designing a new mascot. After her sixth attempt had been taken away by Manager never to return, possibly shredded before it could even be sent to the rest of her team, Minako asked him what she could do better.

"Minako," he said, taking her by the shoulders and bowing his head and gazing up at her, his lips caught on the last syllable of her name. He smiled and put his fingers together. "These Roman gladiators..."

"Yes?"

"Your fanbase..."

"Yes?"

"They tend to be young and..."

"Manager, please get to the point."

"They're pornographic, Minako!"

"Manager!" she said, shocked. Pornographic? Her drawings? Her innocent cartoon mascots in chainmail—chainmail bikinis, but everything important was covered!

He put his fingertips to his temple. He swiveled his hand around, palm on the floor, one half of one dance-floor Egyptian. "You see," he said, the skin on his forehead and nose folding in on itself, "there are so many cuts, so many places—oh, the sponsors will get confused... although the quality overall is good, but don't you think... Something to celebrate your European tour. One of those sausage dogs, hmm?”

The next time she settled at the computer, she pulled up her previous drafts. She had started off with a Roman man in armor, then changed him to a woman with red hair, a woman with brown hair, then embarked, she saw now, on an ill-advised bender into sexy alarming.

She could see Manager’s point. She might have to do a corgi after all.

***

The difficulties of seeing Rei were many. Minako’s schedule. Rei’s occasional donkey-brained stubbornness if she thought Minako was making fun of her. There had been a brilliant six month period when Minako, still in shock over being alive, being discharged from her duties, being free, refused all demands from the execs and Manager over what to do with her career, what to follow up this song with, what to wear on this or that appearance. She plunged into a normal teenage life, month after dizzying month. Eventually they had to stop their celebration: midterms were coming up and the others had families and lives. And Minako had her work.

She was conscious then of spending more time with Rei than the others. A natural effect of Rei’s dogged stalking from before. They were already comfortable with spending time alone, storming off in a huff, then slinking back a day or week later. She knew Rei, too, was aware of it: towards the end of the six months, Rei would start waiting for her outside the temple, all her priestess chores completed, changed back into her normal clothes, bangs fluttering around her dark eyes, arms crossed over one another, hands tense with impatience. “Well,” Rei would say, raising her chin. “You’ve decided to show up after all.”

How simple those days were! Minako would swing by and Rei would be there and they would take off: shopping aimlessly, Rei shaking her head, then rolling her eyes, then hopping into the changing room and striding out with her head tossed back and beyond Minako’s attempts to get under her skin. A singer wouldn’t have been a good career for Mars Reiko, had Rei kept going with that. Mars Reiko was best on the catwalk or in pictures. She begged to be admired. And that haughty beauty had not diminished over the years—if anything, Rei had learned how to turn it to her advantage. “I’m done with this,” she might say, and flash that beauty to stun the other party into silence. Minako liked to think she was immune, but how many times had she and Usagi, after a long day of hauling Rei from amusement to amusement, long after Ami bowed out to study and Makoto left to meet with Mitoki, had been left sighing at Rei’s back?

When the time came for Minako to start touring again, she and Rei had spent a night at Minako’s apartment, furnished by the landlord, impeccably styled. The atmosphere was tense and hot. She kept getting up to adjust the thermostat. They talked about nothing: the tour schedule, high school entrance exams, things like that. They had gotten stuck for half an hour on whether or not Rei would get an MP3 player to carry Minako’s songs with her or if she would just get the CDs. They had talked on and on about it, neither of them knowing anything—finally, agitated, Rei stood up and said, “I’m going home.”

Minako walked her down to the lobby. In front of the glass doors leading to the sparkling city, they stopped and stared at each other. “Minako,” Rei said, and for a moment Minako was afraid she would become Mars, faraway and untouchable—but instead Rei took her by the arm and said, “Take care of yourself, okay?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. The next morning she walked onto the tour bus and didn’t get off for a year.

They saw each other a few times before Minako went to London but this here, after Usagi’s wedding, was the first time Minako had been in Japan long enough to justify renting an apartment in at least a year. Not the same one as before, but certainly somewhere more homely than a hotel. 

Take care of yourself, Rei had said years ago. She could have tossed her head and demanded it to be done, but she had asked for it. It was months later that she understood what she had felt as she watched Rei walk into the night. Her coat was marginally less ugly than her usual fare—whoever bought her clothes was almost certainly colorblind—and her face caught the moon as though it was expecting it. By all means she should have looked as though she was the god of war after conquest. Instead she looked as though she might need somewhere to rest, as though she had thrown her heart out of her chest and with only a few stoic grimaces, stitched it back in.

You cannot place the beginning of love at any single point. Like trying to track an animal by its footprints to find its origin—walk far enough and you find instead its dens, its tracks with blood-tipped claws in the snow, red smears of gore from its bleeding prey. But that image of Rei was the last one she had for many months. When she closed her eyes, she could still see Rei stopping just before she crossed the street, as though she could feel Minako’s gaze on her—as though she might come back. 

How young she had been back then! Fifteen years old, newly alive, freed from her old duties at last. She had thought what she felt then was gratitude. 

***

It could take a lot of effort to get Rei to meet her these days. No fewer than six texts, two e-mails, one selfie posted to her Instagram account—which she knew Rei checked everyday—with Rei’s name written in lipstick on a bathroom mirror. Rei was a student of some kind in Kyoto, although Minako couldn’t get a straight answer out of Rei about what kind of school it was, exactly. Magic? Wizardry? Hogwarts? Even as Rei wobbled out of the hospital, she had been evasive: training my powers, using my abilities, that kind of thing. It had been some real work to get her to Tokyo.

“You look tired. Did you just come off a shoot? Recording session?” Rei said after they ordered their drinks at the cafe.

“I missed you, too,” Minako said from behind her sunglasses and giant hat. Overkill—it was the middle of winter, in that freezing, barren space between the New Year and Valentine’s Day, and they were indoors. Rei, as usual, looked as though she was determined to bury her good looks under a killer scowl. “I just came off a plane. Do you think movies or music is a better career?” The hesitation on Rei’s face was clearly her calculating the chances of being roped into one of Minako’s projects. On one hand: she had already been roped into many music projects, so perhaps Minako was done with her on that front. On the other: kupi~i. “Music is nice, but my heart is moving away from it.”

“What kinds of things did you imagine doing as a child?”

“A hero of justice.” Not a hundred percent true, but true enough. “What did you want to be, Rei?”

“I didn’t waste time thinking about that kind of thing,” she said, obviously lying. “Listen, Minako. It’s good that you’ve come back. Has Usagi told you yet?”

“Told me?”

“She’s pregnant.” Oh. Yes. Minako had heard that. So many e-mails. Rei pressed on. “The baby is possessed. It spoke to me.”

“It did what? What day is it? I’m still jetlagged. I feel as though I’ve been dropped into another universe.”

“I would have thought that you of all people would have taken it more seriously,” Rei said. “Never mind. I should have known better than to tell you this.”

“I’m sorry for being glib. I’m on your side. Just—tell me more.” She believed Rei, of course. But she’d rather have Rei be wrong or deluded or just plain out of her mind. Metalia’s second encore didn’t fill her with much joy.

“Forget it,” Rei said, settling into a sulk. “I don’t need you to help me.”

“You waited all this time for me to come back!” Minako said. “You could have gone to Usagi-chan earlier in her pregnancy.”

“I should have.” 

She could see now that Rei’s ears were turning red and that her face had settled into the stubborn mask of someone who would not be convinced by the usual means. She couldn’t let her stomp off, she knew that. They had known each other long enough to establish patterns. Let Rei walk off now and the next time they’d see each other would be just before Minako set off on the Asia tour. She slapped some money on the table and stood up. “Let’s go.”

“Go?” 

“Sorry? You want to keep sitting?” 

They walked a few blocks through the city. Rei occasionally threw her head back over her shoulder—to look for ghosts, perhaps, or to make sure no one from the cafe was following them? Either way, she was being more conspicuous with her head at a constant swivel. Tokyo, Tokyo—what was there to say about Tokyo that hadn’t already been said? Look down one street or another street and it was nothing but city: metal, concrete, and a line of lonely city trees lining the street, little cars huffing their way up and down the hills, the ocean a conceptual suggestion to the east. They walked until they found a small park. There they stopped to stare at the green grass—green, despite the weather and the cold. 

"What are you planning on doing?" Minako said. "An exorcism? Shoot Usagi-chan with an arrow?"

"I don't know. It depends on what the nature of the spirit is." She tugged at her scarf. "I've never felt anything like it before." 

"Do you often feel... things?" 

Rei laughed airily. "Spirits, demons, that kind of thing, you mean?" she said, sounding almost as though she was mocking herself. "Ever since I was little, I've been able to sense those kinds of things. And not just that. I could see the future, little pieces of it. I could look into the past. When I became Sailor Mars, it all seemed to make sense. But I still have these powers, so it just seems to be a lucky accident that I should have both things." 

"You never told me about that."

"It never came up between us. You were always making me get into weird costumes." She said it with a fond distaste. Minako thought wistfully of the gladiators she had drawn as mascots... Maybe if she could go back to an earlier draft she could salvage...

But that wasn't the important thing at hand. 

"I'm glad you asked me to come with you," Minako said. "It seems like Mars is finally learning what teamwork means."

"Again with that?" Rei said, crossing her arms and glowering at a tree. Then her cheeks puffed, straining with laughter. Their eyes met and, leaning against each other, laughing, they walked out of the park. 

*** 

They went from the park to Minako’s apartment. Rei had originally planned to spend the night with Makoto and Motoki, but out of consideration for those two, who were almost certainly on the brink of madness with their wedding approaching in the spring, Minako lured her into her new, furnished place. The sun had already set by the time they got back, but Artemis’ plush shape could be seen breaking up the sea of city lights visible below. 

Artemis went up to Rei immediately. 

“Artemis!” Rei said, bending down and scooping him up with ease. She looked over to Minako. “Couldn’t you have gotten better furniture?” 

“Yes. But I think the plebian roughness adds to its rustic charm. Let me see if there’s a guest room.” Please let there be a guest room. 

She expected Artemis to stay and chat with Rei, but he caught up with Minako in the hall. “Minako,” he said. “Does she know…” 

“You knew about Usagi-chan, too?” she said, looking down at him in surprise. 

“Your drawings!” 

“She’s probably seen worse.”

“But, but—”

“Realistically speaking, I don’t think it means anything, do you?” 

He scowled at her. “Minako, you’re almost twenty years old. Be more honest with yourself.” 

“I am being honest with myself,” she said. “I can honestly say that I like her. I’ve made a lot of progress on that front. But why does that mean I have to do anything about it?” 

“This is just like you! Back when you were Venus and refusing to get the surgery—you just don’t like taking risks if it means failure! This isn’t even about your career, is it? You wouldn’t be afraid of losing that if it meant you could—” 

“Cowardice must be a Minako thing, then,” she said, and swatted his butt until he scrambled his way out of the room. 

By the time she found the guest room and made her way back to the kitchen, Rei was on the phone, frowning. Artemis was on the couch, stuffed between the couch cushions. No doubt Rei had put him there. Minako, feeling sorry for him, eased him out. 

“What did you do?” Minako said. 

“I didn’t tell her anything! All I said was that you two should have a heart-to-heart talk, and she said she wasn’t going to get involved with your business! Forget it. I’m staying out of this.” She pat his back gently. He wasn’t going to last. Artemis was a born meddler. 

Rei got off the phone. “I was talking with Usagi-chan,” she said. “She’s ready to have us over tomorrow.” 

“Good. Until then, Rei. Do you want to help me with something?” 

She’d preempt any of Artemis’ worries by showing Rei her new mascot right now. She took Rei to her computer and opened up the file—to be safe, one of the redheads instead of a brunette. She watched Rei’s face closely, watching for anything that might suggest recognition or disgust. The scowl was her usual scowl. 

“Have you fallen into disreputable circles?” 

“‘Disreputable.’ What are you, a police commissioner bemoaning the state of the streets? It’s just my next mascot. Or some drafts of them.” 

“I’m not wearing that,” Rei said. 

“Oh, Manager said that I have to tone it down. For the sponsors.” 

“For your audience, more like. I, for one, would be ashamed of you if you were to change it to that. Why not do something cuter?” 

“What does the great Hino Rei consider cute?” Minako said, relieved that Rei hadn’t gone berserk, but at the same time curdling with embarrassment inside. Why did she show this to Rei? She felt exposed, as though her flesh had been made transparent to reveal the soul within. She should have just shown Rei a corgi. 

“Small children,” Rei said, as though Minako had forced her to reveal state secrets. 

“Oh, small children. Of course.” But the relief had some disappointment in it, too. She had wanted Rei to make the deduction. She wanted Rei to see her the way she had always seen her: past Venus, past the idol, past all of that until it was just her. 

“You’re not bad at drawing,” Rei said. “You really can do anything.” 

“Is that how you see me?” she said, suddenly stupid from wonder. 

“Do you have other drawings?” Rei said. “I’d like to see them.” 

Don’t dodge the issue, Minako wanted to say. But she opened her folder of sketches anyway. She opened one up, then the other. She drew a few corgis and showed them to Rei, who sometimes laughed and sometimes gave Minako a flat look of incomprehension. They didn’t talk about anything important for the rest of the night. 

*** 

The first thing she did the next morning was press her face into a pillow and scream. The next thing she did was make breakfast for the two of them. 

They were meeting Usagi for lunch. Rei spent the morning staring at the candle while Minako did some video and phone conferencing. Her eyes kept drifting to Rei: the concentration tight on her face, the candlelight weak against the morning sun, the yellow light barely visible on the shadow of Rei’s cheek. She tried to imagine a line for that: the candle’s light… on your nose. Your nose… was yellow as a candle. 

Just before noon, they took a taxi to Mamoru and Usagi’s new apartment in the city. Rei was looking sharp—at least in part because she had to borrow from Minako’s wardrobe since she had forgotten a change of clothes. 

“So?” Minako said. “Have you decided what to do?” 

“Your chest is too big,” Rei said, tugging at the hem of her shirt. “Everything hangs weird.”

“No one I’ve ever known has complained about it.” 

“That’s surprising. Men will complain about anything.” 

“I never said they were men.” Ah! She definitely caught Rei’s attention there. She stretched her legs out in the taxi. Her chest felt as though it was burning. “There was a dancer in London…” 

“I see.” 

“Of course, it was nothing serious…” 

“Why not?” 

“I don’t know. We didn’t connect past a certain level.” Which was to say, she had some fun and then got too busy. A work relationship in the music industry was almost more about blowing off steam than actually making any connections. She didn’t remember much of it except suddenly being aware of her body, the way she loved being with that woman, the way she wanted it to happen again. “Have you been with anyone, Rei?” 

“No,” Rei said after a moment of hesitation. The silence seemed to grow legs and scuttle from one end of the taxi to another, growing heavy in one place and then moving to another. Rei cleared her throat. “I’ll ask… I’ll ask Usagi-chan if I can touch her stomach. That will do.” 

“Pregnant women have people touching their stomachs all the time. You could’ve done this ages ago.” 

“I wanted you to be there,” Rei said. “To help me. To give me courage if I needed it.” 

“Courage?” Minako said, startled. “What are you planning?” 

Rei shrugged. She smiled bitterly through the window. 

Usagi was the only one home. Mamoru had gone off to college after graduating high school. Apparently classes had started again. He’d be back later. Usagi, her hair still in pigtails, was visibly pregnant, enough so that Minako was stunned to see her and stopped dead at the doorway when she saw the new curvature of her stomach, the frank evidence of new life. Then she smoothed her hair away from her face and took Usagi in for a hug. 

“Ah, do you know what they do in Europe?” Minako said, then kissed Usagi twice on each cheek. 

“Kisses from Aino Minako!” Usagi said, starstruck. She looked to Rei, who looked back darkly. 

“She’d do that any time you ask,” Rei said. “You’re friends, after all.”

“That’s right,” Minako said. “But it’s rare that Usagi-chan and I are in town at the same time.” She looked down at Usagi’s stomach and was again unable to summon any words to mind. Then she flicked Usagi’s stomach and said, “Chiba-kun’s been giving you too many sweets.” 

“Hehe. That’s what Mamo-chan is for. Lifetime supply of donuts!” She went over to Rei and opened up her arms. “Rei-chan, hug!” 

“Geeze,” Rei said, but did as commanded. Ah, she saw it now: Usagi couldn’t lean in without overbalancing. Rei smiled and said, “How much longer do you have, Usagi-chan?” 

“Nine more weeks, the doctor said,” Usagi said. “I’m so bored, though. Mamo-chan won’t let me do anything. So where are we going for lunch?” 

“Wait,” Rei said. “Before you go, do you mind if…” She gestured, lamely, at Usagi’s stomach. Good grief. With moves that smooth and a head that thick. 

Usagi beamed and said, “Go ahead.” 

“Minako, you come over, too,” Rei said. Minako went over, but reluctantly. It felt invasive to do this to Usagi without even telling her; but she knew Rei wouldn’t want to worry Usagi, either. Rei already had her hand against Usagi’s stomach, her face focused. She broke that focus to glare up at Minako, as though to tell her to hurry up already. When Minako actually touched Usagi, Rei took Minako’s other hand in hers. 

“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl yet?” Minako said. 

“Mamo-chan thinks it’s a girl, but Mama says it’s probably a boy,” Usagi said. “I don’t really care, though.” 

“Right,” Minako said, trying to ignore the sweat on her palm. She smiled up at Usagi. “Do you feel ready? You and Chiba-kun, I mean.” 

“Mmm… I think it’ll be okay.” 

“If you need anything, let me know, okay?” she said. “I’m going to be in Japan until my spring tour. So I might be around for this.” 

She could feel something prickling in both her hands: her thumb on Usagi’s stomach, her entire palm from where Rei was holding onto her. It was Rei’s powers, she realized, the spiritual energy leaking into Minako by proximity. And on the very edges of her consciousness, she could sense what Rei was sensing: something cold, something bright, something small and warm. She could feel Rei in there, too, a fire she would never forget. 

“Can we get eclairs now?” Usagi said. Minako let go of both Usagi and Rei. Her hands no longer felt like her own. 

“Why don’t we get a cake, too,” Rei said abruptly. “Something to celebrate Minako being back for so long. Usagi, you can order it and we’ll pick it up together.”

“That’s a good idea,” Minako said. “Usagi-chan, get bundled up and we’ll go when you’re ready.” Once Usagi disappeared into her bedroom to get a scarf and a coat and her socks, Minako said, “What was it?” 

“Human… probably. Not possessed. But I felt the Silver Crystal.” 

“If the Silver Crystal’s there, then does that mean…” 

“I didn’t sense either Princess Sailor Moon or Metalia,” Rei said. “It might just be… maybe, just a small piece of the crystal that survived after that time…” That time Usagi destroyed the world. That time Minako died. That time they all died. All of that. Rei closed her eyes and sighed. “Well,” she said. “What do you think we should do?” 

“I’m ready!” Usagi said. “Let’s go!” 

*** 

They had a normal lunch and a normal dessert. They ordered the cake like Rei wanted, though according to Usagi’s specifications. They made a promise to pick it up together at the end of the week. Minako only had to sign two autographs. Afterwards they returned to Usagi’s apartment to look at the honeymoon photoalbum and catch up on the gossip and hear about what Usagi was up to. Making people happy, as always. 

When Rei was in the bathroom, Usagi turned her smile at Minako and said, “So, did Rei-chan find anything bad?” 

“You knew?” Minako said. 

“I wasn’t sure. But Rei-chan’s been pretty nervous around me lately. And I could feel it, too.” Usagi put a hand on her stomach. “Minako-chan, tell me if Rei-chan found anything.”

“It… it wasn’t bad,” Minako said. “She said… She thought she might have felt the Silver Crystal.” 

“Just that, or is there going to be a baby, too?” 

“Oh. There was a baby.” 

“Then it’s okay, isn’t it?” Usagi said. “It won’t be dangerous to anyone. I’ll teach her how to use it. I’ll make sure she learns everything I know. I’ll make sure nothing happens to it. Tell Rei-chan I’ll make sure everyone’s safe, okay? And if she tries to do anything to our baby without telling us, I’ll never forgive her.” 

*** 

They went back to Minako’s apartment in silence. Minako took Rei to her room and shut the door. This was just going to be between the two of them. No Artemis involved. Minako gave Rei a summary of what Usagi had told her. 

“So?” Rei said. “So what are you going to do?” 

“Why me?” Minako said. “I spent all that time trying to build you up to be a leader—” 

“The whole time, I looked up to you! And I asked you to come so you could help me with this. Please.” 

“I wouldn’t do anything,” Minako said. “I’m trusting Usagi-chan on this one.” 

“Right,” Rei said. “She’s the one who knows how to deal with the Silver Crystal.” But she was pacing now, worrying at a strand of black hair, her jaws clenching and grinding, her eyes dark. 

“What are you thinking?” Minako said. 

“Usagi-chan is the one who knows how to use it and how to handle it. So it should be fine. But what if something happens to the Crystal? What if… What if…” She clenched her fists. Her pacing became louder. 

Minako waited it out, then said, “Why don’t you look into the fire?” 

“My powers don’t work like that,” she said coldly. 

“This is the first time we’ve ever had a chance to talk about them, so I don’t know everything,” Minako said. “I thought you said you could see the future.”

“Not that far. There are too many possibilities. Too many things that might happen. I’ve never been good at seeing it. Or the past. I’ve only been good at making other people scared of me.” 

“Is that what you’re scared of? Other people being afraid of you?” 

“Minako!” she said sharply. Then she sighed and sat besides Minako on the bed. “Before I met Usagi-chan, my classmates used to be scared of me. They’d come to the shrine for the usual schoolgirl reasons and if they saw me, they’d run away. When they learned the crows were my friends, they threw rocks at the crows to scare them off. And my father…” Her throat tightened and she looked away. 

“Do you think Usagi-chan would do that? If she had a baby that was just two pair of legs stuck together, I think she’d be fine with that.”

Rei’s gaze flicked down. She seemed to be fighting a smile. “You’ll jinx her.” 

“Useless superstition,” she said. “Just think of how much better your life has been since you’ve met Usagi-chan. Don’t you think that in those futures you can’t see, some of them must be happy ones? Most of us didn’t have any power until Luna and Artemis awakened us. The child will be fine. Just explain yourself to Usagi-chan and Chiba-kun the next time you see them and we’ll deal with the problem if it is a problem. See? Everything solved.” 

Rei, despite herself, smiled at last. She gave Minako a little push, then fell backwards onto the bed. She shut her eyes. When she opened them again, her gaze seemed to have a searing fire in them. Minako felt her throat close. “In the past life, was it like this, too?” 

“I don’t know,” Minako managed to say. 

“What?” 

“All I really remember are our roles,” Minako said. “The palace. The kingdom. How Endymion and Serenity eloped and destroyed everything. But I don’t remember much about the people, it wasn’t considered important enough. What about you?” 

“No. It doesn’t mean anything to me, anyway.” 

“I think you would have liked it if the Mars back then was like you,” Minako said. She lowered herself onto the bed besides Rei. “But for what it’s worth, I like you for the sourpuss you are.” 

“Sourpuss! Is that how you’d describe me?” 

“It’s part of your charm,” Minako said. “Believe me.” They were closer than Minako had originally thought. Rei’s shoulder was right next to her eye. She reached for Rei, but once her fingers closed around her shoulder, she couldn’t remember what she was thinking, what she had been planning to say. She sat up and said, “Why don’t we relax for the rest of the night? I want to get the final draft of those mascots done by tomorrow. Maybe then Manager will stop e-mailing me all the time.” 

“Which one are you planning on sending?” Rei said with narrowed eyes. She sat back up as well. 

“Oh… the dogs. They’re very popular world-wide, I hear.” 

“What are you going to do with that other one? Those weird naked ones.” 

“Hmm?” Minako said, not feeling shrill at all. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” 

“I could feel it,” Rei said. “You wanted to show me something when you showed me those. Something you couldn’t say.” 

Minako could hear Artemis scratching at the door. She thought about opening it and letting him in. That would end the conversation right here. But she didn’t need to have spiritual powers to see the two futures before her: one where she ran away, never confronting Rei—confrontation, that was their entire relationship—never putting it to words. And another one, some happier future. 

“If you knew, why didn’t you tell me until now?” Minako said. 

“I just figured it out now! I should have figured it out earlier after you tried to make me go on one of your tours as a Tetris piece.” 

“You looked good in that,” Minako said. “But it was more than that. It was always more than that. You always find ways to show me things I didn’t think about. I miss you every time I leave Japan. If I hadn’t met you, I don’t think… I don’t know who I’d be.” 

Surreally, Rei took Minako’s hand in hers. “You’d be the same,” she said. “I know it. Even when you’re being pigheaded, you’re the strongest person I know. I’d do anything for you. When you died…” 

“We weren’t a couple in our past life. I know how upset you get whenever anyone brings that up.” 

“I wasn’t even thinking of that,” Rei said, scowling. The scowl vanished when Minako’s hand slipped past her cheek, fingers sliding below her ear, palm against the hinge of Rei’s jaw. Amazing. She was really doing this. She leaned forward and kissed Rei. Rei, unsurprisingly, kissed like she did everything: wholehearted, tactless, and with outrageous beauty. They kissed again and again. When they parted, Minako’s hands were shaking. Rei tugged Minako in again. “I wish,” she said. “I wish, right now…” 

“What?” Minako said, and turned her head to better hear. 

Rei gestured, a short kind of jab at the window, then kissed Minako again. Everything, she seemed to say. The stars, the lights, the sun itself. All of those things, their sums added together then multiplied, came to close to this.


End file.
